Chapter 13: Picked It Up (6)
Translator: miraclerifle
Editor: Borderline Masochist
But behind that satisfaction, Cale suddenly felt chills on the back of his neck. It was because Ron drank the lemon tea without any complaints.
Clack.
Why did the sound of the teacup being placed on the table feel so loud? Thankfully, it was not just Cale being paranoid. Choi Han, who had been quietly enjoying his tea, started to frown.
“Why don’t you enjoy your tea a little more quietly?”
Ron held back his laughter after seeing Choi Han take a peek at Cale before speaking in a more respectful tone to him. Today, he had found a decently useful sword for Choi Han. It was a sword made by the same blacksmith as the one who made Beacrox’s cooking knife.
‘Want to try it out?’
‘I will not fight against someone who is trying to cut someone else with a cooking knife.’
His son, Beacrox, kept nagging Choi Han to fight him with that sword. It was because Beacrox learned a bit about Choi Han’s strength from that short bout last time, and wanted to find out more. However, Choi Han continued to reject him.
‘Ho, what a funny punk. What, do I need to bring a bloodied sword like you?’
Choi Han closed his eyes for a moment before opening them back up and responded to Beacrox as if he was confirming it for himself.
‘I, I will now be someone who protects. He said even I could do it.’
‘What the heck are you saying?’
Ron watched his son and Choi Han’s cute bickering, before following Choi Han to come see Cale. He didn’t expect to hear such a precious thing.
‘I can’t live as a trash forever.’
That was what Ron was thinking about as he drank the lemon tea. But it looked like he was glaring at Choi Han. Cale was watching that scene with satisfaction.
Ron and Choi Han’s relationship in ‘The Birth of a Hero’ was just like this. They were always at each other’s throats, but still continued to travel together. They were tied together by a contract, but they both knew they could also rely on one another.
Cale thought that a lot of things got twisted because of his actions to not get beaten up, but it looked like their relationship was forming in a similar manner.
‘It is disappointing that it got twisted a bit, but my life comes first. I can’t let the novel dictate my life.’
For Cale, his life was the first priority. After that, it was that everybody living within his territory lived peacefully. What else could you need?
“Sweet teas are really the best.”
Ron flinched at the words that Cale happily said.
The tea time for these three individuals ended in the middle of the downpour.
“I guess the next time I will see you will be at the capital.”
Cale shook his head toward Billos, who greeted Cale as he came down from the third floor after tea time.
“I will be coming here everyday for a while.”
“Is that so? To read the book?”
“Whatever I feel like doing.”
“Please feel free to visit whenever you would like. This tea shop is open to you at all times young master.”
Billos was watching Cale, who walked by while pretending not to hear what he said, with curiosity. Ron was just quietly observing them from behind.
The bastard son of the Flynn Merchant Guild. The fact that he was extremely talented made the official children resent him. That was why Billos had to come to this remote, yet profitable region in the Henituse territory.
He couldn’t even use the family name of, ‘Flynn,’ either.
Ron was observing Cale being friendly with this greedy Billos and clicked his tongue. It was because he thought to himself, ‘Why does it matter to me if that puppy young master is close to Billos?’
“Tsk. I guess even dislike creates affection.”
“I don’t want my dislike of you to turn into affection.”Read latest chapters at nov(e)lbin.com Only
Ron let out a sigh after seeing that the clueless Choi Han had misunderstood.
Children of such a tribe came looking for Cale on their own accord. Ron thought it would be nice to give his puppy young master a farewell present.
Ron moved a bit closer to the Cat Tribe children. He then reached out to caress the head of the slightly larger silver kitten.
Slap.
The silver kitten slapped his hand away and quickly moved away to the corner of the room along with the red kitten.
“Hoo.”
Ron’s eyes turned curious. These Cat Tribe children seem to have already figured him out. It made sense, since they needed to quickly recognize people like him, people who were close with death, in order to live for a long time. Even if cats do have nine lives, they needed to treasure them. The Cat Tribe was known for their long lives as well as their stealthy night movement. In this regard, they were stealthier than anyone else. Ron started to smile.
“One child is fog and the other one is poison.”
The silver one was fog and the red one was blood, or poison. Even if they did not become killers, they had the right foundations to become shadows. The silver kitten turned its head away as Ron said that, while the red kitten snorted. The two siblings had no desire to become killers who gave off such a thick scent of death.
The two kittens scoffed at Ron, as if they knew about his identity as an assassin already. Once Cale came out of the bathroom, they were still sticking very close to each other as they looked up at Cale.
“Stop looking at me.”
They immediately stopped looking at him once he said that.
“Ron. Go get me my meal from Beacrox.”
“Yes, young master.”
Ron left and Cale sat down on the couch and looked toward the two kittens. He then spoke to the two kittens who were whining in a corner far away from him.
“You two are part of the Cat Tribe, aren’t you?”
The two kittens nodded their heads without making eye contact with Cale.
“Are you planning on following me?”
There were no responses to this question.
Instead, the red kitten slowly walked over and rubbed its cheek on Cale’s leg, while the silver kitten approached Cale soon after and started to tap Cale’s foot with her front paw.
Cale already had a plan for these two siblings. He nodded his head and made up his mind about the kittens.
“Then make yourselves useful.”
The kittens immediately responded.
Meeeow.
Meow!
“Answer in human language.”
The pupils of the silver kitten, the older sister named On, started to sparkle as she spoke.
“I want to eat meat. I’m still hungry.”
The red kitten, the younger brother Hong, tapped Cale’s leg as he added on.
“I want to eat cake.”
Cale responded to both of them.
“I will give you a lot of meat and cake, so you know what to do, right?”
“Be useful!”
“Be useful!”
The kittens immediately replied, and that was how the two siblings, who were kicked out of the Fog Cat Tribe, became a part of of Count Henituse’s household.
Four days later, Cale joined his family for breakfast for the first time in a while. Count Deruth looked at his son, who was wearing extremely simple clothes, and started to smile.
“I guess you are leaving today.”
Today was the day that Cale would leave the Henituse territory and head toward the capital.
1. There are many Chinese characters for “On,” but I think the author is referencing the, “On,” that means conceal, because she is the fog that Ron describes.
2. The name “Hong” is probably from the Chinese character for Red.